Terry Cowgill: Panic sets in among package store owners

Nine months after modest reforms were enacted in the way alcohol is sold in Connecticut, the prevailing mood among most package store owners in the state can be summed up in one word: panic.

Last year, Gov. Dannel Malloy persuaded the General Assembly to take some baby steps in treating the liquor industry more like just about every other industry in the state. Package stores can now open on Sundays and most holidays. Supermarkets can sell beer on Sundays instead of covering their coolers with dusty tarps. Prohibition on Sabbath sales has been lifted. Hallelujah!

And yet most store owners interviewed in Sunday's Courant moaned about the added expense of staying open an extra day without a proportionate rise in sales. Solution: if opening on Sundays isn't worth the expense, then stay closed. "Oh no, we can't do that," they counter. "We would lose beer business to the big supermarkets who are open seven days a week."